Report: Pentagon historian ‘misused’ resources

The Pentagon’s chief historian asked contractor employees to babysit a child, promised a deputy job to two workers and speculated about a subordinate’s sexual orientation, the Defense Department’s inspector general has concluded in an investigation.

Erin Mahan, the chief historian of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, “used her public office for private gain,” according to the investigation report, which stemmed from a number of allegations made against Mahan. It was released Thursday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from POLITICO.

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On Thursday, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed Mahan is still the chief historian. “In response to the DoD inspector general’s report, the director of administration and management took appropriate administrative action,” said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Tom Crosson.

Mahan, who was appointed chief historian in 2010, brought a child to work on several occasions and at least one time asked contractor employees to watch the child while she attended a meeting, the IG concluded in its report, dated Dec. 27, 2012. The report suggested the child was hers, although pertinent parts of the report were redacted before it was released.

The IG interviewed Mahan, who attributed her actions to “newness” and a desire to avoid being “mommy-tracked,” the report says. She had since become more “seasoned,” she explained, and would take leave if the same circumstances arose again, according to the report.

Mahan also asked contractor employees on three occasions use her car to drive the child to daycare and pick up the child — a request Mahan says came early in her tenure during her senior executive service training, when she was unable to take the child to daycare herself, according to the report.

“Mahan acknowledged it was a mistake to use staff for childcare purposes and accepted full responsibility for her actions and noted the underlying facts pre-dated her senior executive ethics training,” the report said.

The IG also concluded that on two occasions Mahan “privately promised subordinates that the deputy historian post was to be theirs” — a charge Mahan said in her testimony is “false and patently ridiculous.”

In addition, several witnesses testified to the IG that Mahan “openly questioned the sexual orientation of one of her subordinates.” The subordinate later found out and did not take it well, one witness told the IG.

In her response, Mahan denied discussing a subordinate’s sexual orientation, the report said.

Lastly, the IG concluded Mahan “misused government resources” when she directed two contractor employees to plan and organize two social events in the office in 2010.

“We determined that social event planning is not an authorized use of contractor employees,” the IG concluded.

In their interviews with the IG, Mahan’s employees varied in their assessments of her leadership, with descriptions ranging from “mercurial” and “inconsistent” to “by far one of the best senior executives I’ve ever worked with,” the report said.

In her response, Mahan said “the majority of the allegations and so-called ‘evidence’ from which the conclusions were drawn appear to have come from office gossip and uncorroborated hearsay.”

The Pentagon’s Historical Office dates back to 1949, according to its website, which says its mission is “to collect, preserve and present the history of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in order to support Department of Defense leadership and inform the American public.”